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Origin and history

The Abbey of Combelongue, also known as Saint-Laurent Abbey, is a pre-demonstrated foundation of the middle of the 12th century, established in 1138 by Arnauld d' Austria, Count of Pallars, for his son Antoine, first abbot. Located in Rimont, Ariège, it is the only abbey in the diocese of Couserans. Its Romanesque pink brick architecture, unusual in this stone-rich region, bears witness to a rare mudéjar influence in Occitanie. In 1154 the abbey welcomed King Louis VII on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and had its peak in the 12th and 13th centuries, sheltering up to a hundred religious.

In the 14th century, the abbey suffered the consequences of the black plague (1353-1355), then the damage of the Hundred Years' Wars and the Wars of Religion. In 1568 it was devastated by the Protestants of Tarascon. Despite this decline, it survived under the regime of commende until the Revolution. In 1789 she was looted and burned, and her last abbot, Arnaud de Jonquet, emigrated to Spain. Secularized in 1791, it was sold as a national property. Today, its remains, including the choir and a span of the chapel, have been protected since 2007, and its gardens, labeled "Remarkable Garden" in 2012, extend to a site combining medieval, Renaissance and classical heritage.

The Abbey of Combelongue plays a major religious and political role in the region. His abbot Navarrus d'Acqs, also bishop of Couserans, intervened in 1207 as the legate of Pope Innocent III in the conflicts between Catholics and Cathars, notably in Montreal (Aude) and at the Colloquium of Pamiers. This monument thus illustrates the religious tensions of the period, while embodying a preserved architectural and landscape heritage, open to visits and cultural events in the summer.

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